Should you take a break from writing? For many writers, the answer seems to be a resounding “no.” “Write every day,” the experts say. “A paragraph a day keeps the writer’s guilt away.” (Or something like that.) As Billy Crystal once told us, “A writer writes, always.”
On the other hand, if a runner sprains an ankle or tears a ligament, we’d expect them to take a breather and give themselves time to heal. Even if it’s just you working out in your living room, if you’re sore, sometimes you need a day off before you can get back on the treadmill. We take vacations from other, “regular” jobs to clear our minds and refill our batteries. So why not writing, too?
Back in June, I did just that—at least, to the extent that I was able to. I write for my day job as well as on the side, so I couldn’t quit completely. But after sprinting in May to wrap up a second draft of The Dragon’s Last Flight, I was exhausted, not just from writing so much but from pandemic life and other unhappy circumstances, too.
So I scheduled as much of a break for myself as I could get. I took a couple of days off from my day job and worked ahead on my freelance and personal assignments, and when June came, I put my proverbial pen down. I was a little nervous, truth be told. What if it made things worse instead of better? What if I lost all my determination and stopped writing fiction altogether?
(Spoiler alert: This story has a happy ending, in case you haven’t noticed. I’m still writing. 🙂 )
Who Should Take a Break from Writing?
If writing is only a hobby for you, you can take a break whenever you like. After all, the point of a hobby is that it’s a fun, pleasant way to pass the time. If it makes you feel good to write, write. If it doesn’t, it’s perfectly fine to go and do something else. If you come back to it, great! If not, that’s okay, too.
But chances are you’re reading this because you consider yourself a Writer, with a capital “W.” Writing is your passion. Writing keeps the demons at bay, or at least it allows you to escape from them for a little while. Writing is an essential building block of your being.
If this is you, then taking a break from writing might not always be the best answer. Knowing when to take a break is key to doing so effectively without exacerbating whatever feelings or circumstances are driving you to ask whether you should take a break from writing in the first place.
When Should You Take a Break from Writing?
For me, the decision happened because I was starting to feel completely burnt out and utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally. I was wrestling with anxieties and dark thoughts I had faced and beaten before—but then, when it comes to those sorts of feelings, every fight feels like both the first and last of its kind.
If you’re just a bit frustrated with your current project, the answer might not be to take a break, but rather to switch to a different project. Likewise, if you’re feeling doubtful or weighed down by the common enemy of all writers, imposter syndrome, it’s usually better to write through it. And if you’re tired or feeling unable to write because you’ve been practicing bad sleep hygiene or otherwise not taking care of yourself properly, you might not necessarily need a break—it might be better to simply put a limit on your writing time with an alarm or asking a friend to check on you. And, of course, if you have a looming deadline, it’s generally a good idea to meet that deadline first before trying to take a step back.
If, however, for more than a few consecutive weeks, you’ve…
- Found yourself dreading writing time, or constantly struggling to put even a word on the page
- Felt worse after writing, like you’re “butter scraped over too much bread” or an empty watering can trying to nurture seeds that just won’t sprout
- Felt like you hated writing—not a particular challenge related to writing, but the actual process of generating ideas and putting them down on paper
- Experienced physical symptoms of overstress or burnout, including headaches or muscle aches, stomach problems, difficulty falling or staying asleep, dizziness, fatigue, change in appetite, or frequent illness
- Experienced mental and emotional symptoms of overstress or burnout, such as depression, anxiety, restlessness, feeling overwhelmed, difficulty focusing or recalling information, irritability, or feeling empty or unmotivated
… then it’s quite possible that you should take a break from writing. You might not need a month, like I thought I did, but a few minutes or even a few days might not cut it, either. So how do you know how long of a break you should take?
Setting the Parameters of Your Break from Writing
Should you take a long break from writing, or a short one? The duration of your break, and what you will do with that time instead, will depend heavily on your reasons for taking a break and your unique relationship with your writing. Speaking generally, however, in order to decide these things you’ll need to consider:
- How long can you afford to take a break from writing? The point of a break is to relieve stress, not add to it. If you rely on your writing for your income, you may need to work ahead before your break, or take only a short break, in order to recharge without putting yourself in the red. For me, I was not in a position to take a whole month off of my day job, but I did take some time off and was able to step away from my fiction and side jobs for longer because I worked ahead and because I don’t rely on all of it for financial support at this time.
- What is the nature of my reason for taking a break? Is it physical? Maybe you only need a break from the computer, but can still scribble in your notebook or record voice memos if you like, or maybe you just need to rest for awhile. Is it mental? You might need to make sure you’re actually taking it easy when you take this break, instead of just filling the time with something else mentally taxing. Or maybe it’s emotional, in which case, it might be wise to use the extra time to try a new hobby or explore other ways to work through your feelings besides (or in addition to) journaling.
- Do you need to take a break from all writing, or only a certain project or type of work? Maybe you feel drained by blogging, but recharged by writing poetry or fiction. Or perhaps you need to keep journaling for your mental health but just need a break from writing articles or essays. It’s okay to only take a partial break if that’s all you need (or, again, can afford) to do.
- How severe is the reason I am taking a break? If you’re only just beginning to feel overwhelmed, it may still be time to take a break, but you may not need as much time as someone who may be struggling with more extensive stress or burnout, or medical conditions that writing may be exacerbating. Try to adjust the amount of space you’ll plan to give yourself accordingly.
Whatever length of time you choose, write it down. Pen it into your calendar. Make it real, and believe in it. Believe that you are allowed to take this time for yourself and that you deserve it, because you do.
Once you figure out how long of a break you want to take, set some rules for yourself. Again, how strict these rules need to be will depend on your situation. If you know you’re prone to overworking yourself, you may need to set a hard rule about not writing or not being on your computer for a certain amount of time. The same may apply if you’re recovering physically from writing, say from eye strain or a repetitive strain injury (RSI).
In other cases, however, you might be more lenient with yourself. In my case, I set a soft rule that I wouldn’t do any actual drafting during June, but I was allowed to do research if inspiration struck and I was still allowed to jot down ideas for later so that they didn’t keep me up at night. However, I allowed myself to do some drafting for a couple of days because it felt like fun—instead of draining me, it recharged me. The moment it stopped being a relief, I let it go again, because I was still on “break time.”
What to Do With Your Break from Writing
The final, and perhaps most important question to answer for yourself is this: what will you do with the time you won’t be using to write?
This doesn’t have to be a complicated answer. It can be as simple as “sleeping” or “practicing self-care” or “reading for pleasure.” But you do need an answer. The reason is this: if you’re used to being productive during this time, it can be difficult to suddenly find yourself with nothing on your schedule. You might feel like you’re wasting your time, or being lazy, and these feelings can negate all the good your break is supposed to be doing.
If you’re not a particularly structured person, you might just need to give yourself permission to relax and do whatever brings you joy during this time. If, like me, you need a little more structure in your day, you might give yourself more specific instructions, like making a list of self-care activities to try, a new hobby to experiment with, or a reading list. I dedicated that time mostly to two things: self-care, and introspection. I blocked out time specifically for reflecting on my current lifestyle, what was working and what wasn’t, and looking ahead to what I wanted to try doing differently going forward. I also thought about which projects on my writing wishlist I might want to tackle once TDLF is complete. (I now have my next two projects tentatively planned out.)
Perhaps the biggest benefit of taking a break from writing, however, is this: you get to find out if you miss it.
Because I write so much so often, and because I do lean on some of my writing for financial support, I am prone to sometimes getting bogged down by the parts of my day that feel like “work” and forgetting to play. While I may not agree, at least on a literal level, with Ray Bradbury’s famous advice to write every single day, I do agree with about 99% of everything else he says about writing, including this:
Writing is not a serious business. It’s a joy and a celebration. You should be having fun at it. Ignore the authors who say, oh my god, what work, oh Jesus Christ, you know. No, to hell with that. It is not work. If it’s work, stop it, and do something else.
When the thing I love most—writing fiction—begins to feel too much like work for too long, I stop. Maybe for a few minutes, maybe for a few days. In this case, it was a few weeks, long enough that something wonderful happened. I began to miss it, terribly.
Sometimes you need to miss something in order to stop taking it for granted and remember how much you love it. Being reminded that you love writing and that it is fun, not just hard work, is one of the greatest gifts a writer can give themselves. And if you find you don’t miss it at all, well, then maybe the gift you really need to give yourself is to try something else entirely.
No one else can give you these gifts. It’s up to you to make that time and space when you need to, to refill your creative well and get some much-needed R&R, whether it’s for a weekend or a month or however long you need to feel well again.
Your notebook and your keyboard will still be waiting for you when you get back. They promise.
Odd Lazdo and I are still working on The Dragon’s Last Flight, but you can always check out the free demo while you wait!
